stevedb1975

I agree!!!! This place IS insane. I for one love seeing some switch ups! Some very deserving corps are finally getting some long awaited recognition. It's about effing time!!!!

Uh....not if Madison stays ahead of them and keeps increasing the gap. Try 9th or 10th!

No no no no no. Stop right there. Don't try to speak for others. You are on your own with this one. The aftermath of your smarmy little comment proves that quite well.

No. Don't even try to point the finger at the "Madisonites". There is a clear pattern in your posting history with Madison attacks. You don't get to attack the same drum corps (ANY drum corps) on post after post after post (regardless of what order they are in) and then try and point the finger at the supporters of that corps when people combat your attacks as if they are the aggressors. No, it doesn't work that way. You obviously have it out for the Scouts and yes, it's time for you to give it a rest already. (Prediction: he will now try to back peddle by making some claim like "I actually like the Madison Scouts.........BUT"...."BUT" being the key word. I'll finish it for you. "BUT".............you are jealous.) Enough said. Give it a rest.

Boy, you just can't give it a rest, can you?

Uhh...I'm on that site right now, saw the score for Boston you were speaking of and was about to "stand corrected" until I saw Boston's other scores on each side of July 7th... According to http://www.fromthepressbox.com/1987seasonscores.htm, Boston scored a 68.5 in Waterville, ME on July 5th and then a 63.9 on July 10th. Nobody goes from a 68.5 to a 79.9 and then nose dive to a 63.9 in just a matter of 5 days. Therefore, I conclude that Boston's score on July 7th is a typo. Boston was not even scoring like that in July in the 80s (sometimes not even in August).

<sarcasm>Oh I KNOW! The crowd just couldn't STAND them, could they? Just one more chord at the end of ESOM and the entire audience would have been throwing tomatoes at the corps. <sarcasm> .

Considering the fact that Phantom was 10th place in 1975 and had not neven come into their own until the late season of 1976, that is not a far fetched thought at all. And another miracle story.

And as I also said (probably while you were typing), the Cadets were 1st and 2nd place during the early season because they did not see anyone in the top 6 during the early season. You can't make a case on the Cadets being in usual competitive form based on "1st and 2nd place finishes" against the Crossmen and Florida Wave. Lets face it and call a spade a spade. The 1987 Garfield Cadets is a MIRACLE story! And they DESERVE for it to be remembered that way. I recall a story of a multi member pile up the Cadets had at one show in 1987. They were ROUGH in the early season that year.

Though your argument has some valid points, here is how I come to my conclusion. Look at their corpsreps score link. Cadets rarely saw any of the top 6 contenders during the 87 season. It's easy to say that SCV and Spirit were the only corps that beat them when nobody else above Spirit ever (or rarely) saw them. Yet, it's a more logical conclusion to me that when Cadets hardly saw anyone substantial (until late July), for the "to be"10th place corps to have beat them at all would mean for a slow start for the Cadets. And for the record, this was a quite common pattern for the Cadets in the late 80s and early 90s. Crossmen used to beat them in the early 90s too.

Then how do you explain Suncoast being right in there with them also? Granted, Suncoast STARTED weak as well but once they caught some momentum they were right there with Cadets and Spirit. Nah....I say Cadets started slow.

That's a nice way to go to prison. If a director did that to my kid, I'd probably JOIN him in prison, if you know what I mean. No seriously, how can such stupidity be considered acceptable? Even more, how can you give such stupidity a thumbs up. There's nothing funny about that. Whoever that director is deserves to lose his job and have a criminal record. Nothing personal man (I usually enjoy your posts) but I don't see how you can make light of a director hitting a kid in the head with something that can cause serious damage. There's nothing funny about it.

"Hazing" is squirting ketchup and mustard on someone while they are asleep, while another squirts whipped cream in their shoes. Completely harmless and all in good fun. The crap in this above article does not even qualify to be called "hazing". I'd call it GANG ACTIVITY! I mean.......look at it.......

Did you miss my post above? Try 2-3 points down from SPIRIT OF ATLANTA in the early to mid season...then only a point above them on August 9th. Beating SCV didn't even look like a discussion. They were not even in the top 6 before finals. Not sure they were even counting on Finals after Spirit (who was 10th) beat up on them in the early season.

You would be very.....very.....VERY....VERY.......VERY.....VERY....................................................INCORRECT!!!!! In 1987, the Garfield Cadets started out below Spirit Of Atlanta (who placed 10th that year) and.......they ended up WINNING. Want to see an example? Here is an early show where Spirit of Atlanta THREE POINTED them. Sunday June 28, 1987 West Chester PADCEPositionCorpsScore 1Spirit of Atlanta 77.000 2Garfield Cadets 74.900 3Suncoast Sound 70.300 4Dutch Boy 63.400 5Florida Wave 62.200 6Crossmen 53.600 7Malden Diplomats 47.200 8St. Francis Xavier Sancians 39.800 And then even as late as July 7th, Spirit was still beating them with Suncoast Sound trailing them... Tuesday July 7, 1987 Orlando FLDCEPositionCorpsScore 1Spirit of Atlanta 80.100 2Garfield Cadets 79.900 3Suncoast Sound 76.300 4Florida Wave 65.600 5Crossmen 57.400 And THEN....even once the Cadets DID finally pull ahead of them....only a FEW DAYS BEFORE FINALS...Spirit was STILL trailing the Cadets... Sunday August 9, 1987 Ankeny IADCIPositionCorpsScore 1Garfield Cadets 91.600 2Spirit of Atlanta 90.500 3Sky Ryders 84.700 4Dutch Boy 79.500 5Colts 74.800 6Marauders 74.400 And then for the final results... Saturday August 15, 1987 Madison WIDCI World ChampionshipsSTADIUM: Camp Randall Stadium - University of WisconsinDCIPositionCorpsScore 1Garfield Cadets 97.900 2Santa Clara Vanguard 97.800 3Cavaliers 94.700 4Blue Devils 94.400 5Phantom Regiment 94.300 6Madison Scouts 90.400 7Star of Indiana 90.000 7Velvet Knights 90.000 9Suncoast Sound 88.800 10Spirit of Atlanta 87.600 11Bluecoats 85.700 12Sky Ryders 81.900 I don't know what you consider "starting out slow"...but to start the seaon in the area of 10th place and then win it all, I'd say that is pretty remarkable. You can go to the following link for more examples.... http://corpsreps.com...orpstype=Junior

No, I'm talking about the trademark tunes that are supposedly mixed throughout the actual show. Supposedly, it's Pictures mixed with "blasts from the past". Did you not catch any of that when you saw them? I'm pretty certain I know what the tunes are, but I'm not going to be the jerk who spills it online before the corps chooses to do so themselves.

And to think you logged in just so you could minus someone's post. Someone needs a life.

This is how I see it as well which is why early on in this thread I posted that there is no "right or wrong" answer in this. "Opinions filtered through their own experience". I could not agree more.

Wow, gone for a few days and my thread has gone through the roof. Cool! I'll be honest, I was hesitant about it and not sure it would make it's way off the ground. Glad people are enjoying it. Looks like some good discussions too.

I said above that I was going to limit it to just last year's finalists...as they are going to be the easiest for most to remember. But glad you would post Crossmen anyway. I now may need to dig out my semis dvd and take a look.

Not true. Carmel won with quite a bit less than 200 in 05. Most of the winners tend to between 170 and 180. As for small bands? Tarpon Springs from Florida usually do not have more than about 120 total and though they have not yet won, they are always very close and in the top 5 when they go to Grand Nats Now to get back on topic, I disagree with you that BD, Cavies and Crown would not make finals with 100. That's crazy! They would regardless. Quality goes much further than quantity.

And by the way, there is no right or wrong answer on this. It's all based on opinion and personal taste. Have fun with it. And even if you are one of those "purists", perhaps the corps/shows who take the more sparing/less is more/tasteful approach is what you will like the best and want to mention.

No doubt they do some cool stuff. I really liked a lot of what Bluecoats did last year too.

I'm still not covinced that very many corps are making it all the way to 150 anyway. Most corps seem to be topping out at around 146-148 and I know there are several under 145 (even in the top 12). Most of that is due to guard not filling completely and making adjustments. Maybe percussion too. But anyway, don't think it matters much. As one person said, design and quality is what counts and I don't see why the 3 corps mentioned by the OP would have any more problem being at the top with 100 than they are with 148ish.

I realize (and respect) that some of the puritsts out there still consider body/dance movement controversial and don't care for it. However, it's a permanent part of drum corps now that will never go away. So we may as well appreciate it for what it is (and I personally do like a lot of it). So this is not necessarily about who technically is the best at it. Who in your opinion (I'll use last year's finalist list) makes the most effective and creative uses of it? For me, it's Crown hands down. I would also add as an honorable mention that Madison has found some very unique ways of putting their own "Madisonish" sort of "showy" characteristics into it (the New York rush visuals in their opener last year were very cool and looked very much like THEM). Drumlines are also getting more creative now which is kind of cool. Blue Stars drumline had some cool moments. Looking forward to seeing how the poll stacks up and reading what people's thoughts are on what they DO like.